893.516/612: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 29—1:35 p.m.]
441. Reference Department’s No. 189, May 27, 2 p.m., and my 367 of May 9, 6 p.m. The Financial Secretary of Inspectorate General of Customs today confirmed that Federal Reserve Bank notes are being and have continuously been accepted at par by Chinese Maritime Customs in the North China area and deposited, along with Chinese legal tender notes received, in Customs accounts with the Yokohama Specie Bank as “Chinese yuan” and the monthly report received from the Yokohama Specie Bank in Tientsin by the Inspectorate General [Page 411] of Customs reads that so many “Chinese yuan” are on deposit in the Customs account. He states confidentially that this term may be considered as covering Federal Reserve Bank notes as well as Chinese legal tender notes and that repayment may presumably be made in either or both except that the portion of these deposits included in the “foreign loan quotas” must be paid in Chinese legal tender notes if the Anglo-Japanese customs agreement is implemented.
Repeated to Chungking and Peiping, code text by air mail to Tokyo.